The name corn is given to the leading cereal crop of any major region. In England corn means wheat; in Scotland and Ireland, oats. The grain called corn in the United States is Indian corn or maize (Zea mays mays)

Cereal plants of the genus Avena of the family Gramineae (grass family). Most species are annuals of moist temperate regions. The early history of oats is obscure, but domestication is considered to be recent compared to that of the other grains—perhaps c.2500 B.C.

A cereal grass, Secale cereale, native to W Asia but widely cultivated in cool temperate and upland regions. 1-2 m high, it bears a terminal spike, 10-15 cm long, of numerous two- or three-flowered spikelets. The grain is milled to produce a dark-coloured flour, which is used in making black bread or for livestock feed.

A member of the lily family (which includes leeks, garlic, onions, and other relatives of the grasses), this perennial (Asparagus officinalis) was doubtless an important gathered food for our Stone Age ancestors.

All of today's beets are descended from a wild forebear whose green tops doubtless nourished our own prehistoric forebears. Indeed, the first cultivated beets were apparently tended only for their leaves (eaten like spinach), and it was not until the early Christian era that their roots became appreciated.

A member of the mustard family, and doubtless a descendant of the wild cabbage (Brassica oleracea), broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) began as a wild-growing native of the Mediterranean region.

Sources indicate that the cabbage (Brassica oleracea) is an ancient vegetable of the European Old World, but cabbages in China were mentioned by Confucius (d. 497 B.C.), which suggests that the plant traveled quite widely in the distant past.

The cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis), another - and many would say the most elegant - member of the sprawling cabbage family, is a direct descendant of the original wild cabbage and a close relative of broccoli.

Called couve in Brazil and often regarded as a form of kale (which they are, differing mostly in the smoothness of their leaves), collards (Brassica oleracea var. acephala) constitute one of the oldest members of the cabbage family and probably originated in the Mediterranean region.

The size and color of the eggplant (Solanum melongena) range from the white, eggshaped types of India (from whence the name derives) to a large, green or white variety of melon size, although the most common (in North America) remains the familiar dark purple, ovoid form sometimes called the “Japanese eggplant.”

Common name for a perennial plant (Solanum tuberosum) of the family Solanaceae (nightshade family) and for its swollen underground stem, a tuber, which is one of the most widely used vegetables in Western temperate climates.

Plant of the family Solanaceae, related to the potato and eggplant. Although cultivated in Mexico and Peru for centuries before the European conquest, the tomato is one of the newest plants to be used on a large scale for human food.

Meat, Poultry, and Seafood

Cooking meat not only softens tissues, kills parasites and microorganisms, and coagulates blood and albumen, but makes the meat more palatable by developing its flavors or introducing new ones by means of seasonings and sauces.

Domestic birds such as chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese. They were domesticated for meat and eggs by early farmers in China, Europe, Egypt, and the Americas. Chickens were domesticated from the Southeast Asian jungle fowl Gallus gallus and then raised in the East as well as the West. Turkeys are New World birds, domesticated in ancient Mexico. Geese and ducks were domesticated in Egypt, China, and Europe.

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Much seafood is eaten uncooked, either raw, dried, smoked, salted, pickled, or fermented. Otherwise it is cooked whole or cut into steaks, filets, or chunks. It is often used in stews or soups.

Fruits

A sweet-sour fruit, the apricot (Prunus armeniaca) was long viewed as a kind of plum - and one that came from Armenia. In truth, it is a stone fruit (a drupe) of the same family as the peach, plum, almond, nectarine, and cherry and apparently originated (despite its scientific name) in China, where it has been cultivated for some 5,000 years.

Name for several species of the genus Musa and for the fruits these produce. The banana plant—one of the largest herbaceous plants—is said to be native to tropical Asia, but is now cultivated throughout the tropics.

The small, round red to black fruits are botanically designated drupes, or stone fruits, as are those of the closely related peach, apricot, and plum. The cherry is one of the most commonly grown home-orchard fruits. About 600 varieties are cultivated, practically all derived from two species—P. avium (sweet cherries) and P. cerasus (sour cherries).

Fruit of the coco palm (Cocos nucifera), a tree widely distributed through tropical regions. The seed is peculiarly adapted to dispersal by water because the large pod holding the nut is buoyant and impervious to moisture.

Of the same genus as the blueberry, the cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) is a North American shrub that is so named because its flower stamens resemble a beak - hence “crane berry,” a name (which subsequently became “cranberry”) assigned to it by the early European settlers in New England.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia pomelo pŏm'əlō, or pummelo pum'məlō, citrus fruit (Citrus paradisi) of the family Rutaceae (orange family). The grapefruit is so named because it grows in grapelike bunches.

Like most of the other members of the citrus family, the lime (Citrus aurantiifolia) is native to Southeast Asia. It was first cultivated in China and India, then introduced in southern Europe (probably during the Crusades), and carried much later by the Spaniards to the West Indies.

A native of the New World, the pineapple (Ananas comosus) is now cultivated in frostfree areas around the world. The Tupi-Guarani Indians of South America have been credited with its domestication, although this is in some dispute.

Dairy

The milk of various animals has been used in the making of cheese: the milk of mares and goats by the ancient Greeks, camel's milk by the early Egyptians, and reindeer's milk by the Laplanders. Sheep's milk and goat's milk are still widely used, but cow's milk is most common. The milk may be raw or pasteurized, sweet or sour, whole, skimmed, or with cream added.

The seed of a legume, Vicia faba, eaten as the whole pod when very young (up to 8 cm) or as green unripe oval-shaped beans from more mature pods (up to 30 cm). Usually boiled but uncooked beans are eaten as a snack food in the eastern Mediterranean.

Originally grown as a food crop for animals, it is increasingly used for human consumption in cooking oils and margarine, as a flour, soya milk, soy sauce, or processed into tofu, miso, or textured vegetable protein.

Hardy, annual, climbing leguminous plant (Pisum sativum) of the family Leguminosae (pulse family), grown for food by humans at least since the early Bronze Age; no longer known in the wild form. It is cultivated everywhere in home gardens and on a large scale commercially for freezing or canning.

Nuts & Seeds

The "nuts" of sweet-almond varieties are eaten raw or roasted and are pressed to obtain almond oil. Bitter-almond varieties also yield oil, from which the poisonous prussic acid is removed in the extraction process. Almond oil is used for flavoring, in soaps and cosmetics, and medicinally as a demulcent.

Common name for the Cruciferae, a large family chiefly of herbs of north temperate regions. The easily distinguished flowers of the Cruciferae have four petals arranged diagonally ( "cruciform" ) and alternating with the four sepals.